I have made a few orders through CE including a purchase of a new bike. Nothing but praise for the CE team. Sam was always quick to respond to my emails about my new bike when asked. They have price matched a set of pedals which was appreciated. Oh, BTW I have no affiliation with CE. Keep up the good work CE!

Just received my third order from CE, smooth sailing from order to delivery. My order wasn't complicated, ony wanted three things and they were all in stock and didn't need to price match. Ordered Sunday, received Friday.

Cycling Express don't do themselves any favours, do they. I was about to order a Ultegra 6700 RD from Wiggle when I thought of CE and checked the website. Only $20 more than Wiggle and maybe they would price match so not too bad. But the photo is of a 105 RD, and there's no mention of whether the Ultegra that I suppose you would get is silver or grey, short or long cage. At this point it all got too hard and Wiggle now have my money.

I don't mind paying a little more to help an Australian business, but they need to act like they want me to.

Yes, if Sam's still reading this, they need to fill in all the product details too (specifications). I'm guessing (hoping) that's a work in progress. At the moment with lots of gear the specs aren't there. I just ordered some Vittoria tyres off them and you need to know all about the product beforehand, otherwise you haven't a clue.

scirocco wrote:Cycling Express don't do themselves any favours, do they. [snip] But the photo is of a 105 RD, and there's no mention of whether the Ultegra that I suppose you would get is silver or grey, short or long cage. [snip]

I agree with this. I had a bad experience buying some tyres from CE -- there was some confusion about which of the two available models I was actually ordering. So I emailed them for confirmation on the details, as the product page was lacking in information. Went ahead and ordered them, only to find that I got the wrong model in the end - so the advice I got from CE was completely wrong. I sent it back and CE refunded my delivery expense in sending it back, which was good. The really frustrating thing is, I checked the product page a few weeks later and it had not been edited, so anyone else could easily make the same mistake that I did.

Similar with camelbak antidote reservoir. No details on which one it was, I emailed them and they said they had 2L and 3L and to write in the comments at checkout which one I wanted. Thats what I did and I got the one requested, so no problems.

Emailed them near COB on one day and got a reply before lunch time the next day.

Customer service/replies to emails where fine, prompt enough. However, if I did not have a voucher with them I probably wouldn't have bothered with the initial email and just ordered off elsewhere (unless price was cheaper).

I just wanted to share an experience a close friend of mine is having with CE. Firstly let me say i have shopped once at CE, bought a pair of shoes, I love them and price was great, communication average and I thought slow delivery but I referred hum to CE when I saw they had an awesome special on a Reynolds assault wheel set. He has a 2009 Cervelo S3 so not all wheel sets fit the rear of the bike so after reading the online description which had no details or options to choose what free hub (he needed Shimano) he decided to ring them. He was on the phone for 20 min discussing if they knew any issues with fitting the S3, they said heard of none, all good. My mate also needed to ensure they were Shimano compatible, several times put on hold to confirm, the answer yes they are Shimano free hub. So they get delivered, slower than expected but worth the wait. I go over to help him fit them. I look at free hub and think hmmm that doesn't look right, low and behold its a campagnolo free hub. We look at the box, one sticker says Shimano the other campy, Shimano has been crossed out.

We are both pretty annoyed by this poor service and being late at night he waited the next day to ring them. They apologize and say we don't stock campy so not sure what has happened there, we have no Shimano in stock, we will order today (Wednesday) they should be here early next week, we will then ship them out, we will have a courier come tomorrow (Thursday) to pick up the wrong wheel. Courier never shows and turns up the following day.

Wheel goes back next week comes, no calls/emails so my mate rings them on the Tuesday. Yes we are shipping it out, few days go by still no news so ring them again, this time they say it has been post here is the tracking number, by this stage it was the Friday, so disappointed wheels wouldn't be there for thr weekend but he is an easy going guy. Expected them Tuesday but nothing, rings CE yes dispatched, so over next two days goes to local post office to ask, then decided to ask post office to check tracking number, they say CE have lodged paperwork for a delivery however have NOT handed over the actual goods, that tracking number last update was 25 May.

Can I say we are both pretty disgusted by CE, my opinion, they lodged paperwork to get a tracking number but not the goods so they could tell the customer oh we have dispatched then, must be a problem with Auspost. There communication is non existent and to send the wrong wheels in the first place is very poor but they could have made up for the mistake!

MarkG wrote:Sent two emails in the past 3 months, never bothered to reply to either of them.Will never use them again.

Yeah I did the same. Sent an email, got a reply saying the item will be uploaded to the site in a day or two. Checked a day or two after, not there, checked a week after, not there. Sent two follow-up emails a week and two weeks after (no replies) - two months later, the item still isn't on the webpage.

Have given up.

Of the two orders I have placed with the site, one was delivered fine by Aus. Post, the other would have been sent back if I hadn't rung CE asking for the tracking code as it wasn't addressed clearly / properly. Had to follow it up with the local PO. myself and intercept it.

I have kept going back to the website over the last few months in the hope of some improvement in their listings. None found Until I can look at the website and buy straight away, confident of the items I will receive, they aren't geting my cash. And the thought did cross my mind to email them with this feedback, but then I didn't bother. I have waited long enough since they started up for them to get through teething problems with no improvement, why would I email them with feedback?

If you run an online store, you should be able to buy online instantly. No phone calls, extra emails, nothing. I have bought more cycling items online than I care to imagine and only ONCE have I even had to send an email...

Thought I would just post a follow up to my rant above (probably easier if you read above to get background knoiwledge). So the saga goes like this, apparently CE lodged a lost item with Auspost but would provide no reference number to substantiate this. So after 3 weeks Sam contacted my friend to tell him that the wheel must have been lost in the post and that he would send him another rear wheel out.

I am happy to say it arrived on Wednesday 27/6/12 however funny thing, the box and packaging that it arrived in was the exact packaging my mate sent the wheel back to them in. There was finger prints on the wheel, it wasn't clean like the one he received the first set. To top if off there was some tool markings in the allen key bolts of the free hub which were left by him and I when we tried to remove the freehub ourselves so that we wouldn't need to go through this process. In conclusion we are suggesting that the original replacement wheel was NEVER posted, they lodged a tracking number to stop my mate asking for the wheel. It is obvious they got the original wheel back from their supplied with the freehub changed from campy to shimano/sram they have then posted out the exact wheel he returned.

Can I just say we are both disgusted with the way CE and Sam has managed or should I say not managed this matter. The continual BS is unbelievable and I can guarantee CE neither of us will ever buy anything from you in the future. I will do all my shopping happily and guilt free from the UK stores that offer great prices BUT most importantly CUSTOMER SERVICE.

Oh and as an offer of apology after my mate said I want a good will gesture for all I have been through he gets..... $10 voucher!

Baz not good to hear but then again I'm not surprised I gave up on them long ago even though I have never placed an order. Things raised about check out have never been addressed nor has the discounting issues with 18-44% of the marked prices and the final price is still above the recommended retail price. Many of there heavily discounted items I can walk into my local bike shop and be cheaper and there not even on special so CE in my opinion is all smoke and mirrors with plenty of puff to boot.

jcjordan wrote:I have some serious concerns with this model of response to the problems face by the Australian Bicycle industry by internet sales.Letâ€™s consider where this will leave the LBS, if customers can purchase online from this new website at similar prices to O/S how does this help. The LBS is still not able to compete so has no incentive to do so. The result will most likely mean that they will just not stock anything that is for sale, or if they do it will be at a premium (i.e. if you want it quick then it will cost you extra).It actually encourages shops to drop stock and move to a repair only model.

Sign of the times.... Remember your local hardware store??? Now the guys who once owend those local hardware stores work for BUNNINGS!!!

Paypal can be attractive - for a shop it can be more expensive to accept paypal payments compared to credit cards. In terms of security, recent reports here are that Credit Card companies are generally quite good in protecting the customer against loss to fraud.

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